A 600-foot-long rock wall built without permission along the shoreline of Quidnessett Country Club became the signature criticism of the Rhode Island Coastal Resources Management Council last year.
But as environmental advocates hammered the coastal agency for contemplating the country club’s retroactive request for forgiveness, which the council eventually denied, a Warwick property owner’s own illegal seawall escaped similar public outrage.
A hearing Tuesday before the CRMC thrust the spotlight onto Sali Siharaj, who built a shoreline retaining wall along his property overlooking Greenwich Bay two years ago, without permission from coastal regulators. Despite multiple written warnings, two separate threats of fines totaling $18,000, and multiple meetings with CRMC staff, the illegal stone wall still stands.
Which is how what has been an administrative enforcement case till now has risen to the attention by the 10-member, politically appointed council.
The council voted Tuesday to require Siharaj and his real estate company, ODI Realty LLC, to bring his property in compliance with state coastal regulations. The enforcement order offers a 45-day window for Siharaj to submit a restoration plan that would tear down the existing stone wall and restore vegetation, or else face financial penalties.
The council’s unanimous vote doesn’t actually preclude Siharaj from having any kind of protection against shoreline erosion on his property. After removing the existing, illegal wall, Siharaj can opt to proceed with what coastal regulators have determined is an appropriate protection against shoreline erosion: a “hybrid” wall with stone on the bottom and vegetation on top.
Unlike the Quidnessett property, which borders the most environmentally sensitive type of state waters where any permanent structures on the shoreline are prohibited, regulations governing the shoreline abutting Siharaj’s property near Buttonwoods Beach are not so stringent. Some development is allowed, but it must first be reviewed and approved to meet state coastal requirements.
CRMC staff originally suggested the hybrid alternative when Siharaj first applied in 2022 for a permit for shoreline work at his Budlong Farm Road property. But before Brian Harrington, CRMC senior environmental scientist, finished reviewing the application, Siharaj hired contractors to begin clearing vegetation, landscaping, excavating, and building a stone wall.
Enforcing state coastal regulations more broadly has been a pain point for the state coastal agency, highlighted in an April 10 report by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). NOAA’s report blamed agency staffing shortages for the “varied” enforcement success over a five-year review period. It recommended additional hires — an agency request which has gone unanswered in recent state budget years — as well as developing an online permitting system to streamline and track enforcement.
“It takes the agency a long time to work these cases through the process,” Jed Thorp, advocacy director for Save the Bay, said in an interview prior to the hearing Tuesday. “I think more than anything, it speaks to lack of enforcement capacity at the CRMC.”
According to letters to the CRMC from his attorney, Siharaj was unaware he needed CRMC approval before work could begin, and was out of the country when construction was happening.
Thorp was skeptical of the plea of ignorance.
“Even if coastal property owners don’t know coastal rules, most contractors doing the work are pretty well aware,” Thorp said.
Council member Kevin Flynn questioned why CRMC staff had not taken enforcement measures against the contractor, who continued to excavate and build the stone wall on Siharaj’s property, along with a separate, also illegal wall on his neighbor’s section of shoreline, despite being told to stop.
“A contractor who willingly ignores cease and desist orders is part of the problem to me,” Flynn said during the meeting.
Anthony DeSisto, the outside counsel for the CRMC, responded that the property owner, not the contractor, is responsible for violations of state coastal regulations.
Missed deadlines
Siharaj was allegedly brought up-to-speed on the infraction by November 2023, when his former attorney, Paul DeMarco, met with Harrington to work out a resolution, Harrington told the council during a Feb. 11 hearing on the case. They agreed to have Siharaj and his contractors submit a new restoration plan for the shoreline to coastal regulators by April 2024, with work to be completed the following month. Extended deadlines went unanswered. Siharaj’s engineer finally submitted a plan on Feb. 7, 2025, days before a Feb. 11 hearing on the case before the full council.
The council agreed to postpone any enforcement action by 60 days to give agency staff time to review the recently submitted engineering documents.
The plan by Warwick-based Joe Casali Engineering Inc. did not meet the agreed-upon terms of restoring the shoreline and revising the rock wall to a hybrid stone-vegetation mix. Instead, the engineering proposal sought an after-the-fact approval for the stone wall as-is, according to an April 22 written addendum from Harrington.
Subsequent requests by coastal regulators to submit an appropriate restoration plan went unanswered, according to Harrington’s report.
A contractor who willingly ignores cease and desist orders is part of the problem to me.
“The staff gives applicants the benefit of the doubt,” Thorp said. “Oftentimes, they try to be accommodating, to work with applicants and their attorneys as best they can to resolve things without having to go to enforcement. Unfortunately, that sometimes results in more back and forth, in hindsight, than should have been allowed.”
Mary Shekarchi, a Warwick attorney and sister of House Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi, is now representing Siharaj. She told the council at its hearing Tuesday that she was unable to reach Siharaj for weeks despite multiple attempts and forms of communication. She finally made contact with his son last week, and learned Siharaj was out of the country. Another, unnamed representative from ODI Realty signaled willingness to comply with state coastal regulations and instead build an environmentally appropriate hybrid retaining wall, Shekarchi said.
Joe Casali, principal of the engineering firm with his name, will be submitting a plan for the alternative shortly, Casali told the council Tuesday.
The “deconstruction” proposal is being coordinated with the engineer for Siharaj’s neighbors, who must similarly restore the shoreline and take down their own illegal stone wall. Because the two barriers are connected, built by the same contractor, it makes sense to coordinate restoration efforts, Shekarchi said.
Siharaj did not attend the meeting, and could not be reached for comment. City tax records show he bought the three-bedroom, two-and-a-half bath house for $365,000 in November 2010, transferring it to his real estate company, ODI Realty LLC, for $0 in December of the same year. The property was valued at $744,700 as of 2024.
Three miles south at Quidnessett, the rock wall remains, despite the council’s January denial of its attempt to reclassify the waters — a workaround which could have allowed for a permanent barrier. Coastal regulators are still reviewing the required restoration plan to return the shoreline to its original state.
Thorp remained adamant that the best solution to inadequate and protracted enforcement action was to overhaul the agency completely, getting rid of the politically appointed council and empowering the staff with final decision-making power.
“The council would have been justified in starting enforcement action tonight,” Thorp said in an interview after the meeting. “They already gave an extension back in February. The more enforcement actions like this get delayed and delayed, it takes away some of the deterrent effect of enforcement.”
Various pieces of legislation to this effect have been introduced in both chambers of the Rhode Island State House, but remain under review by committee.
Council member Patricia Reynolds did not attend the meeting on Tuesday.
This story was originally published by the Rhode Island Current.
